Muv Luv: Infinity Plus: Imperial Redux
by frag2k13
Summary: Reboot: Shirogane Takeru locked himself from his old world and vowed to save those he loved in the Betaverse, several failed loops have passed and frustration and anger lead to breaking that vow. With guilt in his heart he starts again and refused to join the UN, enlisting in the IJA how will the worlds fate change when Alt IV fails but a war experienced Takeru fights back.


**A/N: Ok I reloaded this one as I wasn't satisfied with the previous version, as you can see its over double the length yet still only gets to pre C.C.S.E, usual stuff applies here please review let me know what you think.**

**Disclaimer: Muv Luv not owned by me.**

**Warning: Rated M contains swearing, sex references, minor lime content, violence, horror major character deaths and OCs.**

**V 1.0**

**Shirogane's Quarters – Yokohama Base – 7****th**** December – Alternative +5**

"What the hell was that Shirogane?" The blue haired samurai levelled at the man.

"Classified." Takeru replied without missing a beat.

Meiya looked at the man that was part of her squad, the issues revolving around the coup that had just happened had put her on edge, he had been too persuasive and knowledgeable about things that he shouldn't have, unless he wasn't really a Cadet then things made sense.

The UN Cadet Exo suit her sister had worn, it had been brought by Shirogane and unless he knew she was to turn up he wouldn't have had it, though the Professor might have known but if that was true, then he wasn't a Cadet anyway and was almost certainly aware of the coup before it had happened.

Then that other world, she had come to address him about the coup only to find herself on the roof of the base with a fully intact town, that made no sense only he had told her to stay put or else, usually this would be the time for her to tell him to stuff it, but she knew he was stronger and more skilled, the glare had added to the weight of his command and though he was nothing more than a squad leader and she was not second in command anymore she listened.

"Who are you really?" Meiya narrowed her eyes at the guy sitting down making a coffee.

"Classified." He replied smirking.

Meiya felt her eyebrow twitch in annoyance he was clearly going to play the 'classified' card.

"You knew about the coup didn't you?"

"Classified."

Meiya's self-satisfied smirk from getting a confirmation turned to a glare, sure it was obvious from that comment, a no was a yes, a yes was more likely a no and a classified was a yes, but he knew that the country was going to be plunged into bloodshed and still went with it.

"You have a lot of secrets Shirogane-san, how am I to trust you, even Tsukuyomi is looking at having you removed from the squad."

Takeru rolled his eyes, "I would like to see her try, remember who you are talking to Meiya, I am the squad leader AND Yuuko-Sensei's assistant, you are just Meiya especially now, you can't hide behind Yuuhi now and what can Tsukuyomi do now? She no longer has a reason to be stationed here so even less pull."

Takeru snapped back, he was fed up with the whole débâcle it was like jumping to his old world, the girls there were too naïve and here they were too green to the problems that they truly faced and the stakes that were in play, still his objective was to get them through this war alive, he didn't care if they hated him, hell that might work better, live and prove him wrong.

"You, how dare you, its fine for you, you didn't have anything at stake during that coup, what would you know of loss?"

Takeru's eye twitched, how dare she make such an assumption on him, he knew her, he knew her better than she knew herself, but she didn't know him.

"Loss? You spoiled brat, the risk you took could have made things worse, it nearly did when that American spy had taken that shot, we nearly lost the battle because of your impulsiveness, more was at stake than just you and Yuuhi and the stupid people of this country." Takeru aimed a withering glare at her. "Infighting when we are the front lines, I know the Americans kicked it off but you almost ruined a major operation, you're lucky I was able to salvage the situation."

"So not only did you know about the coup, but I would say you set it off."

"Set it off? No just supplied the match, the people of this country are idiots that still hold to ideals that should have died out a century ago, those that believe in honour are those that wish to see us dead as a species."

"I believe in honour Shirogane-san and I can see you don't."

"Of course I don't, you think I care about it? If I had to choose between living without honour or dying with it I like living." Takeru shot back.

"Then you are a coward."

"The only cowards are those that won't adapt to change clinging to old concepts like a child with a blanket, the BETA flatten everything in their path, you think our honour matters? You think our culture matters? In 10 years we are dead, and 100 this planet is devoid of anything other than volcanoes another alien species that sees this planet in the future will see nothing of our species, WE WILL HAVE NOT EXISTED!"

"Our culture will somehow survive Shirogane-san." Meiya stated resolutely.

"Culture, what culture?" Takeru snorted. "Ask the dead of this planet whether culture matters, their silence is your answer."

"You would destroy this country to defeat the BETA?"

"I would grind this country to dust for that."

Meiya's eyes hardened at this standing up she drew her gun on the man sipping his coffee calmly.

"I will not allow you to do that Shirogane-san, I will put you under arrest."

"What's this? A gun aimed at a squad member, Mitsurugi you are out of line, I may be part of the squad but I have more authority that you, put that gun down before you either shoot yourself or I put you on the ground." Takeru stood up, the sudden authority he radiated forced Meiya back. "Grow up Meiya, this war isn't about what we have it's about what's left, them or us, either get with the program or get out."

Meiya couldn't believe what he was sprouting at her, it went against everything she stood for, another incident came to mind.

"What about Tengen?"

"Those idiot civilians? I did tell you I supplied the match that was it, I wouldn't care if they died, but I wanted someone else more dead and another indebted to me."

Meiya knew who he was speaking about her sister and more likely the Sagiri person, her sister had been endangered because of the man in front of her and she had been cast out of the family her purpose finished because of him too, rage, despair and sorrow filled her heart at this.

"You son of a." Meiya fired her gun.

The sound of a gunshot was heard quickly followed by a second one before the sound of a body hitting the floor and a pair of bullet casings rattling around.

"Oh god."

Takeru looked down at Meiya's lifeless corpse, a single bullet hole in her left temple and the back of her head missing from the hollow point round he had used, more blood began to flow out onto the floor from the wounds, his gun still held out firmly he looked at the wall behind him a round embedded in the material.

A wash of emotions flowed over him as the realisation of what he had done hit him, this wasn't his objective, no it was the furthest from it.

'Nice protection dickhead.' A part of his mind taunted him.

Takeru found this was one of the few times his ingrained training went against him, he had reacted to being shot at, Meiya had been trembling either in fear or rage but she had missed, whether intentionally or not was irrelevant to the issue, she was dead.

The sound of running alerted him to the fact the gunshots had been heard, he had a few moments before he was found and taken away, turning the gun to his chest he fired off 2 rounds into his heart.

**Shirogane Residence - 21st October 2001**

Pulling himself up from the bed was a chore, the brief feeling of being his old self was quickly pushed aside, he wasn't that person anymore, hell he wasn't the guy that went back and stormed Kashgar from orbit, no most of him had died out since then, he was someone different just in the same skin.

The problem now was the fact he had shot Meiya, again, this was not part of the reason he locked himself from his own world, the sound of a loud crash was heard as Takeru tipped the desk over, the cries of anger and despair echoed around the empty house for several minutes inter-spaced with crashing as items were thrown around before silence once again reigned supreme.

Takeru sat down on a chair he had re-righted for the sole purpose of regaining some control of himself, a few moments passed before he reigned in his emotions.

"Time to try again Takeru." He muttered to himself.

Opening the closet to grab his uniform he found his hand wouldn't grab the white jacket his hand trembling lightly before it, realising the reason his clenched his fist and tried again but to no avail his body refused to take the clothing.

Tutting to himself he grabbed a plain red polo shirt and faded blue jeans from the rack and changed into them, the shirt was quite tight on his chest and seemed to do everything in its power to show off the muscles in his arms and chest while the jeans were a size too small showing the loss of any fat he had before he came to this world.

Putting his gameguy and a few miscellaneous items into his holdall he went down stairs and went to leave, arriving at the door he found again he refused to move and head towards the school, a few moments passed before he realised he couldn't go and face them with what he had just done.

Heading back to his room he dumped the gameguy and items on the bed, grabbing another few T-shirts, polo shirts and underwear and a baseball cap he picked up a battered copy of a novel of his fathers and tossed that in the bag, taking the bag back downstairs he raided the kitchen for snacks and the camping kit under the sink.

Filling his holdall with stuff that made him look like a refugee he put his trainers on and walked outside, rubbing some dirt and dust on his bag, clothing and trainers he turned north and began heading into Tokyo a fleeting glance at the school cum base, a vow to return in another time was made unless this saved them, he cared enough that their lives were more important to him than if they cared for him.

**Tokyo**

It had taken him 10 hours to reach Shinjuku as he had taken a few detours along the way to avoid any possible spotting by patrols of UN guards, his arrival in the city had been largely unnoticed, a few stares from civilian women that seemed to linger on him went ignored, for now he needed a place to crash and a small hotel would work where he could use to find an enlistment office.

Asking around one of the people he stopped pointed him to a small hotel with a few rooms, the place itself was a small 2 story building that looked more like a hostel than anything but was indeed a hotel and was exactly what he needed, using the cash from his wallet to pay for the room he dropped his stuff off and sat on the edge of the bed, the room itself had a separate bathroom/toilet and a small kitchen, the place had been made for backpacking westerners over the usual design.

For now he needed a plan and to get his shit together, pulling out a notepad and pen he began making a list of issues he needed to fix, it didn't take long to fill several pages of detailed notes including learning about this world's history in a more in-depth way and general knowledge, he realised Yuuko had told him very little about the world at large mostly to keep him under thumb, this wouldn't do if he was to save the girls from their fates.

The biggest issue he needed to fix however was dealing with his actions and inactions over that last few resets, despite everything Marimo-chan's death still reared its head and Tama's corpse being dragged out by the Superior, Meiya's confession and now her execution by him just kept adding to the pile of shit pushing him again to the breaking point.

Deciding to take a shower he began running the deaths and scenes through his head in a morbid loop.

**Alternative**

Takeru sat staring at his trashed TSF, the battle had been partly ethereal, the weird breakdown from causes unknown had resulted in a cocktail of drugs and hypnosis that only sent him on a blood lustful rampage, his eventual defeat had only seemed to have come due to holding a paintball gun, though all dignity had gone out the window after his unit had been disabled, the suit had thankfully dealt with the accident he had had from this encounter, truly he was pathetic.

The self-pity was being soothed by the kind words of the lovely woman known to him as Marimo-chan, even here behind the hardened mask of a drill Sergeant she was the same kind person she was in his world, and it helped, the problem now was he had again called her by the pet name, the fact she had allowed it meant nothing due to her not replying or even moving at least he hadn't heard her move.

Turning around from his sitting position he caught slight of her feet, a red substance pooling at her shoes, looking up slowly her skirt front coating in a dark crimson stain that continued up her blazer and over her breasts, a tightening of his throat as he shot bolt upright a brief image of her smiling kind face overwrote the horrifying reality that was kind of staring him in the face.

A soldier class, one that had gotten the drop on them both while he was wallowing in self-pity had bitten down on Marimo-chan's head, the shredded skin of her face showing bone, teeth and light muscle and brain behind it and the right eyeball that was hanging out its socket by the optic nerve, the blood trail that came from the injuries, it couldn't be coincidence that the BETA chose now to bite down and sever the top of her head with its sharp teeth.

The almost slow motion fall allowed him to catch each grisly second of the scene, the loose eyeball severed and the remaining parts of the brain cut at a diagonal angle severed from the spine fell to the floor like waste, he heard someone scream, himself but from someone else's perspective before the BETA exploded and nothingness from himself.

**Tokyo – Imperial verse**

Removing himself from the shower after this he found he had spent near an hour in there, the replays had numbed the issues enough that he could go on without throwing up like he had in the showers, he wasn't sure if this was a good idea from a mental standpoint but it had to be done.

Opening up the windows to allow some air he made himself some instant ramen and sat down, his body happily accepting the calories before he made himself another, finishing up his meal he left the room in the single pair of clean clothes that had intentionally been missed from the dust wash.

Takeru had little to do around town, he found the recruitment office pretty quickly, considering the flags flying above the building were hard to miss, still with him paying for several days in advance for the room he would spend them looking around.

After returning to his room he played Meiya's execution in his head again, a bitter smile came from the realisation that had he gone back to his world he could imagine someone walking up behind him when he least expected it and put their hand on his shoulder only to get their neck broken, his reaction in his quarters proving it.

**Tokyo – 23****rd**** October**

Takeru had woken up early after setting his alarm for 0500, as part of his attempt to fix himself getting up earlier and getting more done in a day was one of the easier and harder aspects to change, he had left his room quietly after changing into some running gear and went off for a jog around the area, the idea of it fully wakening him and seeing when the office opened allowing him to kill two birds with the same stone, a mental vow during the 10km run to continue this when he joined up.

After returning to his room, he quickly showered and tidying up his room he checked out and headed to the Recruitment office he had found a few days ago, again in dust coated clothing, he had spent the last day working out a suitable cover story that would sound plausible yet be hard to verify, his time in the refugee camp in Nevada had given him some knowledge about them, though with the extinction of the human race in that loop some liberties had been taken, still the story was quite good.

The cover was simple, he had been in Hiiragi town when the BETA attacked, which was true in a sense but had fled in a fishing boat with some others and headed for Australia arriving in the camp near Port Douglas Queensland where a former member of the Australian SAS had taken some of the younger teens and trained them up both to help provide some security and to keep them out of trouble, it would cover for his build and experience to a good degree.

Arriving at his destination, it was a standard military office, inside a single clerk in a green army uniform with the rank of Sargent sat behind a desk typing into a computer a second door most likely to a medical office was in the back of the room.

"Can I help you?" The desk Sgt looked up expectantly.

"Yes, I uh, want to enlist as an Eishi." Takeru tried to look nervous more so than he felt but he didn't like it, it was pathetic and he had had enough of that over the decades.

"Excellent." The Sgt beckoned him to sit. "Now name please."

"Shirogane, Takeru."

The man typed away on his computer.

"Ok, where were you born? And date of birth."

"Hiiragi General Hospital, 16th December 1983, I grew up in that town."

"Ah, here you are, hold on its flagging you up as dead."

"Yes, I was in Yokohama when the BETA attacked I fled to Australia with a few others during the evacuation."

The soldier opened up the full file the picture of a young man in a middle school uniform displayed, checking the facts on his system to the man sitting across from him everything seemed to match up and quite a few people did flee to other countries during the invasion.

"Ok we will need to take some samples of blood and DNA, sorry but this is procedure it looks good but we can't be too careful."

Takeru nodded as he was ushered into an adjoining room where a nurse sat working on some paperwork.

"Aoi-san, we got a dead one here, the works please, Shirogane-san we will continue the interview here if that's ok."

Takeru nodded as he proffered his arm from a blood sample, answering questions about his reasoning to fight and what he did at the camp, the tests included a sort fitness regime on a treadmill and lung capacity, it was strange for him as he never had this happen in the UN, he guessed Yuuko was good at covering for him, a sense of pride filled him here, this was the first time he had really gone his own way.

With the tests and samples taken, the pair sat again in the main office, the man looking over the fitness results.

"Ok Shirogane-san, the fitness tests show you are in remarkable shape, I would say I have never seen someone this fit before, the blood and DNA samples are still being run, can you come back in about 2 hours, 3 tops we should have confirmed by then and I can get someone to pick you up, though whether in cuffs or not depends on the facts." The Sgt chuckled lightly.

"Mind if I leave my stuff here then?"

"Only if I can search it first, don't want a bomb or something in there."

The Sgt checked his holdall after getting his permission finding nothing wrong he placed it in a secure locker and Takeru left to waste sometime in the city, returning a while later he grabbed his bag and was picked up in a jeep to head to his new home for the foreseeable future.

**Saitama IJA Training Base – 24****th**** October**

Takeru had spent half the previous day at the base dealing with the enlistment process, the vows to be taken and getting the training uniform which had taken longer than normal due to his build and being a guy to boot, after that he had been ushered into one of the Eishi training pods for a quick baseline aptitude test, in the end he was to be assigned to a squad today.

The 89th training squad was only 4 strong and unlike the 207 didn't have a hospitalised member, with Takeru added he made a squad of 5. The instructor was one Captain Yukimura Shinji, a young 20 something Captain that worked double as an Intelligence analyst, his short brown hair matched Takeru's but he had hardened green eyes showing he had seen a fair bit of combat, a lean frame and short statue gave him a street fighter look over a soldier.

"Squad 89 fall in." Shinji barked entering the barracks.

The barracks was a large room with 12 bunk beds each with a pair of footlockers, only the 89th remained waiting for roll call which had been delayed by Takeru's arrival. The 3 girls and single guy stood to attention in front of their respective beds and saluted and a quick roll call to insure everyone was there before the introductions were made.

"Squad we got some fresh meat Shirogane Takeru, returned from his vacation in sunny Australia and decided to step up and grow some balls." Shinji smirked.

"Looks like he has a large pair of balls." The girl with the dark green ponytail remarked.

"Shirogane Takeru, here to kick BETA ass, hope we get along."

"Morikawa Hayate, squad leader." The sole male Cadet answered stepping forward and shaking Takeru's hand.

The man was shorter than Takeru at 5ft 6 with short silvery hair that parted in the centre and brown eyes.

"Nice to meet you."

"Hirano Rei, nice to see you Takeru-kun." The girl with the green hair replied, the girl was very tall almost around Takeru's 6ft and quite busty, with bright blue eyes and an almost infectious grin.

"Oh Takeru-kun huh? Ok Rei-chan I guess I can accept that. You can all call me Takeru I'm easy enough."

"An easy guy, that's my kind of guy." Rei laughed while the short girl next to her gave Takeru a pitying gaze.

"Nanami Chiaki, Takeru-san." The short girl spoke up.

Around Tama's height, the girl had short red hair a few shades darker than Sumika that framed her round face and bright green eyes.

"Shirayuki Maya, hello Takeru-san." The last girl bowed slightly the long bright orange haired girl smiled shyly at him trying her level best to keep her blue eyes on him.

"Ok, Shirogane, drop you kit off at your bunk and get in your training kit we got laps." The Captain announced.

Takeru was shown to the end of the row near the shower room, the top bunk of the last two beds was free, taking the middle one he dumped his kit before heading to the shower to change.

"Shirogane, you change in here." Shinji called out.

Sighing he realised he was used to some privacy due to the special treatment the 207 got, he wondered briefly what they would have been like without the treatment, a new possible loop where he got them back to the barrack came to mind, though with the little time before their Eishi training and subsequent graduation he doubted it would work and shelved the idea immediately.

Quickly pulling out the Cadet training clothing he stripped down to his boxers trying his best to ignore the hungry stare coming off the greenette named Rei before she wolf whistled at him. Dressing himself he turned and followed the group out to training.

**Barracks**

The squad itself had only been put together 3 months prior to Takeru's arrival and as such had only some training and skills, the 10km run had turned two of the girls into panting messes reminding Takeru of his first arrival, though Takeru suspected that Rei's almost orgasmic sounding huffs were intentional, he had a good eye for people and could tell she was in quite good shape, Hayate had been the only one to finish and not look like a sorry state.

The push ups and sit ups after this had again dealt heavy damage to the group and had separated Hayate from Takeru as the heavy training regime he had gone through over his early loops shone through.

"Fuck me, are you not tired after that." Rei cast an annoyed glare at the newest member.

"She's asking you a question and propositioning you at the same time Takeru-san." Chiaki interrupted his reply.

"Try running in winter in Australia it hits 30+, you get used to that you can run here." Takeru grinned, he had mentioned to them his 'Australia' cover though he had done some running in Nevada during the end of the world and hitting 40+ there he had cut down on the running to prevent himself from getting heat stroke.

The squad were sitting on two of the beds facing each other, Takeru sat with Rei who seemed to be trying to close any space between them on her bed, which was below his and the other three on Hayate's bed.

"You know, we're here now, why not slip into something more comfortable." Rei asked suggestively.

"You mean someone?" Takeru asked catching the many meanings of the comment causing the other three to laugh at Takeru beating her to the punchline. "I had a friend who was very good at this, I got used to that from dealing with her."

**Showers**

The one thing that surprised Takeru the most about this loop was he was now in a coed shower room, the privacy barriers barely went above his waist concealing part of his abdomen and leaving little to the imagination, in a way he realised this was most likely to remove any future issues the soldiers would have on the front line about gender and nudity, some situations might require less or no clothing and problems that may arise in several senses could be mitigated by the familiarity they got over the basic training, the issue with Mikoto and the C.C.S.E in his first loop came to mind.

The shower room itself consisted of 24 separate cubicles each with a shower and chain pulley to dispense water that reset itself after 30 seconds, the evening shower came from the sweat they had built up, or not in Takeru's case, from the run, the jiggling and swaying breasts of 2 of the three girls caused by washing themselves made his eyes wander, trying to find something else to look at he looked over at Hayate and noticed he was just showering normally before he fumbled the soap before catching it.

"Don't drop the soap, Hayate-kun." Rei teased.

"So, were in a prison now?" Takeru replied looking over at the girl. "No one's going to get shanked in here right?"

He was of course no stranger to the female body, he had been in a relationship with all the girls of the 207 at some point and had even dated Yuuko after one of the failure loops, it had been that loop he had been transferred to another squad after Christmas, the last memories of that loop being him and Yuuko boarding one of the first shuttles leaving Earth, here as part of the elite and him as a security force member assigned to her.

"Hmm Takeru-san seems quite comfortable around naked girls." Chiaki spoke up her head just about above the barrier.

"Somewhat, but not in this capacity." Takeru tried to keep eye level with the girls but with Chiaki lower down the other girls breasts were again in his sight. "Though I get the feeling this will take some getting used to."

"True Takeru-san, aside from Rei-san, we all had trouble with this at first." Maya spoke comfortingly to him.

**First Aid room - 26****th**** October**

The squad were being taught the basics of battlefield triage by one of the doctors on the base, the current lesson covering dealing with the basics of CPR and blood loss.

"Ok, there are two forms of CPR." The doctor pushed his glasses up making sure he had everyone's attention. "Compressions only and rescue breath CPR, you might be familiar with the later, for today we will be doing compression only on the practice dummy."

The doctor pulled out a half body dummy and placed it on the table.

"I don't think it's going to make it doc, even with the CPR." Takeru smirked seeing the torso and head only equipment. "I'm not a doctor but he looks dead to me he's blue in the face."

"We have a comedian here, very well Shirogane you're up first."

Takeru quickly went about the procedure he had practised many times over the years on similar dummies, his form had become very professional and he pumped the chest of the dummy with his hands at a steady rhythm.

"Hmm, impressive, I can give you a passing mark on this, you've done this before." The doctor stated rather than asked.

The other 4 began their practice, the doctor giving pointers to their form as they completed the assignment.

"Ok, we'll call that part of the session a day, now we go on to treating hemostasis wounds." The doctor looked at Takeru. "Do you have experience in this too?"

"Yes, I have full training in first aid." Takeru replied.

"How would you treat the three types of wound then?"

"You cover normal wounds by applying pressure, press a finger down on a bleeding artery, and potentially fatal wounds like severed limbs you apply a tourniquet, from what I was told by a 'friend' the latter is most likely to be suffered by Eishi."

The doctor nodded. "Sadly that is true, and that's if you're lucky, but you are correct about the treatment, remember when using a tourniquet keep the affected area above heart level too and make sure you get them to a hospital right away, Shirogane?"

"The wound will suffer necrosis within 2 hours so treatment is vital, however you can't undo the tourniquet either or you will lose all that you gained from it."

"Maybe you ain't a comedian after all."

The four others were stunned by his knowledge, thought they had heard from him he was trained informally.

"Where did you say you learned this again Shirogane?"

"A refugee camp." Takeru replied removing any trace of smugness from his voice. "They needed all the help they could get."

The truth of it was he had spent time in one back before humanity went extinct, as he was trained he would help the few personnel that were qualified treat injuries for those in the camp, it had reminded him a little of that old American TV show about army doctors in Korea he had seen once though he couldn't remember the name of it.

**Armoury - 27****th**** October**

The armoury was where the newest recruits got to try out the guns first before using the outside range, due to the age of the Cadets and potential ignorance about handling live rounds the ballistic gel padded walls between the firing ranges would prevent most mishaps, the group had started their outdoor training the other week, but with Takeru being added they were testing him more than anything.

"Ok ladies, this here is an assault rifle, does anyone here know which kind?"

"Type-91 bullpup battle rifle, with 4x ACOG scope for medium range engagements and 30 round magazine." Takeru answered after putting his hand up and getting the go ahead.

"Correct, this is the mainstay weapon of all IJA forces and those 'others' that are here." The Sgt practically spat out the others part referring to the UN forces. "The other one here on the table is the Type-91 Carbine version and the one on the box behind me is the light machine gun or LMG for short."

"And this." He continued pulling his pistol out of his holster. "Is the H&K USP 9mm, you all have one as future officers to teach you responsibility with handling a weapon, I expect everyone to maintain their guns at all times, Shirogane have you been given your technical manual yet."

"Yes Sgt, I was given it when I was provided with my handgun." Takeru replied firmly.

"Very good, today we are going to be using the rifles and engaging targets with the normal variation with targets up to 100m the scopes are calibrated for now, but don't get too comfortable with that its part of the training to know how to do that too."

The 5 Cadets each entered a lane and picked up the waiting rifles and ear muffs, usually they wouldn't need them but indoors the sounds can damage the ears quite a bit.

"Ok, single round shots only for today, anyone sprays and prays get my boot up their ass." The voice came over the speakers in the noise protectors.

Takeru took aim and fired off a series of rapid semi-auto shots each hitting the dead centre, he had decided that he couldn't risk his skills deteriorating by holding back so wasn't. With everyone's mag emptied the paper targets were brought forward, thanks to the calibration most of the squad had hit the target at least 3 in 4 times, Takeru's bulls eye was completely missing as he had to ensure they knew he hadn't missed a shot.

"Impressive Shirogane let's see you do that again at 200m."

The range was around 500m long in total and also acted as a second range when those off duty wanted to shoot and the outdoor one was in use or the weather was too bad to practice. Takeru took up his position again, loading his rifle he looked at the new target paper, this one was in the shape of a person rather than a generic target.

Firing controlled rounds he put half the bullets into the head of the target, 10 into the heart 2 in each shoulder and 1 where the crotch should be, both the instructor and Hayate winced at the last one.

"Ok, we got a well-trained one here, I guess you were showing you can disable as well as kill, good, sometimes we need them alive." The instructor put another target in play and gave him another magazine. "Ok 500m let's see if you are indeed hot shit."

Takeru smirked as he went back in again, the scope was calibrated for 200m, taking careful aim based on the conditions he fired a single shot followed by another until the mag was again empty, the shots all true.

"Ok, I can see you will be one to watch, you every trained others before? Work with 2 of the squad on their shooting I will deal with the others."

"I want Takeru-kun." Rei asserted herself.

"I wish to train with Takeru-san too." Maya smiled.

With that training again under way, the four rookies took to the firing range with enthusiasm, Rei trying to press herself into Takeru whenever he tried to correct her form, after an hour of shooting the squad were over 60% accurate at the 200m mark and 85% at 100m.

"Good continue like that and we might make soldiers out of you yet. Now return to your instructor and I will send my report later."

**Barracks - 31****st**** October**

A week had passed with Takeru learning the ropes as an IJA Cadet, the curriculum was quite similar to that of his UN days including field stripping and first aid, Takeru was resting on his bunk in his free time catching up on some reading, the book was a history book about the last 30 years of Japan, finishing up the next chapter about the last Prime Minister he mind wandering back to his training though the week.

"Takeru, we're having our meeting." Hayate called out pulling the Cadet out of his thoughts.

Pulling himself off his bunk he made his way over to the poker table where the group were holding their private meeting.

"Ok as current squad leader I want to put this to a vote assuming we get an agreement, I think Takeru should be the new squad leader, his skills are above ours and I can see him being a rock when we need it."

"Immobile and dull?" Takeru decided to go for the rock analogy first.

"Will you accept if we agree?" Hayate looked over at him.

"I feel bad taking it from you, but I guess I would accept." Takeru remembered he had been squad leader of the 207 when they got their commission during his pre Kashgar loops so knew he could handle the responsibility.

"Ok, show of hands for Takeru being our new squad leader." The entire squad raised their hands. "Ok Takeru, you're in charge now."

"Ok and Hayate-kun is second in command. Agreed?" The squad nodded at this.

**7****th**** November**

Takeru had been squad leader for a week, aside from his commission in the two loops to 1st Lt this was the best he managed in short notice, even though it was only leader of some green Cadets he was able to work his experience into their training.

It hadn't take 2 days before Hayate and Chiaki were both joining Takeru for his 0500 hours morning jog, Hayate being a former athletics club member and Chiaki a gymnast giving the pair better fitness, with the hopes of improving the whole squads abilities he had forced the other two to join them on the runs, Rei joking about voting Hayate back in as squad leader during one of the runs.

The rifle and handgun training was going well too, they had moved to the outdoor range, the accuracy of the squad had dropped a bit but with light and shadows causing range issues and wind it was natural, Takeru had again shown his skill through his sniping and had been surprised that Maya herself was quite a natural.

Due to constraints with his second job of dealing with the intelligence part of the base, Captain Shinji only dealt with the physical aspects of the training, instead letting others train the squad in areas such as firearms and medical, he did however help train them in hand to hand and CQC.

**Outdoor training area - 3****rd**** November**

"Ok, since today is Shirogane's first day at CQC, I thought I would go easy on him and do a one of one against him myself." Shinji looked at the muscular Cadet. "As your squad leader he should be capable."

Shinji had accepted the replacement leader without any real problem, it made sense to him to put the most capable member in charge and nothing in his evaluations showed that he would fail when it counted.

The pair entered the designated area for fighting before taking up a stance each, Takeru was as usual wearing his BDU consisting of a pair of combat trousers and vest top, Shinji had removed his officers blazer and shirt leaving him in his dress trousers and no top showing a lean frame of compact muscle.

Takeru knew from his stance that Shinji was a scrappy fighter reminding him of Hayase in a sense except he preferred to fight her, he was softer in a way and a damn tough opponent to boot.

The pair got the silent signal and moved in Takeru was surprised when Shinji went straight for a tackle, Shinji embedded his shoulder in the stomach of Takeru and he managed to get his arms around the young Cadet before he felt a knee in his chest causing him to bolt upright, the large right cross connecting with his jaw sending Shinji staggering back.

Takeru closed in wanting to finish this quickly before the older man pulled out some unknown trick and turned the fight around. Shinji saw this coming and dropped low again hammering a thunderous left into Takeru's stomach before going for a fierce upper cut, Takeru compressed his chin into his chest barely avoiding the knock-out blow but getting his nose bloodied for the trouble.

The left hook from Takeru in retaliation for this glanced across Shinji's face forcing him back again, both fighters took a quick step back to watch their opponent, Takeru again moved in telegraphing a heavy right hook but rolled behind Shinji who tried to counter with a straight punch, the needless combat roll brought Takeru slightly behind Shinji allowing him to swing at his kidney the blow again glancing off the older man as he reacted and turned avoiding most of the damage from the strike.

Seeing his chance Shinji dived on the Cadet as he tried to get up caught off balance Takeru landed with a thud but managed to roll putting himself on Shinji his hand pinning the officer down before he could place the right fist on his face he caught him trying to grab a handful of dust pinning the arm and ending the fight.

The pair dusted themselves off after the fight allowing Shinji to get his shirt back on.

"Tackling is a good way to end a fight, but only if you can pin your enemy, getting them on the ground removes much of your opponent's mobility and strike range while keeping much of yours, remember that."

**7****th**** November**

Takeru's opponent today was Chiaki, Shinji was overseeing the spars while Rei rested after being beaten heavily by her small childhood friend, Takeru had to admit the smaller girl was dangerous with a knife, her height made it difficult to hit her and her agility only added to the threat she posed.

The pair charged at each other training knives in hand, Takeru swung down attempting to either force Chiaki to block or evade and put her on the defensive, Chiaki however parried the blow and entered strike range slashing across his torso forcing Takeru to jump back to avoid the hit and switch tract, regaining himself from the close call he found Chiaki in his space again only this time with two knives.

A fury of slashes from the pint sized berserker forcing Takeru to block and deflect each manic swing, seeing little opening for his own knife he moved left and delivered a swift low kick from himself knocking Chiaki in the side sending her crashing to the ground.

"Hey Sir, dual knives is against the rules ain't they?" Takeru asked keeping an eye on the girl as she got back up.

"Fighting ain't fair in real life, deal with the unexpected." Shinji replied shrugging.

"Fuck." Takeru muttered seeing Chiaki charge in again.

Seeing that this fight would most likely result in a loss for him Takeru decided that a fair fight was pointless, moving in quickly he swung his knife horizontally stopping the charging girl in her tracks, seizing the initiative he spun the girl around with her free hand and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and held her out straight.

The flailing girl couldn't do anything with her legs kicking nothing, realising this she dropped the knives and hung there dejectedly waiting for the call.

"A knife to the back here right Sir?" Takeru asked the officer.

"Correct well fought, but I recommend you practice dual wielding knives it can come in handy."

The training went on with further drills on fighting with a knife and using low kicks to damage legs and check opponents, Takeru knowing the drills began practising with two knives swinging and stabbing using his shadow as a reference point.

**Changing room – 11****th**** November – 0640 hours**

The alarm had gone off 10 minutes ago, the BETA were attacking from Sadogashima and a few minutes prior to the alert an entire naval force had been sunk, by now they had made land and were about to engage the defending force.

"See ain't you glad you got up early now Rei-chan, the BETA would have woken you up otherwise."

"Fuck, why we deploying we haven't the training, well maybe you do." Rei spat out not directly at Takeru.

Shinji walked calmly into the room as Takeru finished donning the body armour and helmet, the squad looked up at the officer.

"Ok squad, you're being sent to the final defence line, it's mostly as support we don't expect to have problem with the current numbers, but get your asses in gear anyway."

"What do the BETA look like?" Rei asked tugging the body armour over her bust.

Shinji looked conflicted at telling the untrained Cadets information that only officers should know, but a chance they might need it was their too.

"Either tell them Sir or I will, I saw them in Yokohama I saw all the types." Takeru spoke up.

"Get your rifles and ammo from the armoury and get to the waiting truck, I will get the files I will brief you en-route." Shinji replied leaving quickly.

"You think we will have to fight Takeru-san?" Maya asked nervously.

"Most likely yes, if the Captain went to get the information the projected outcome is most likely bad so steel yourselves everyone, you may get to see humanities foe soon enough."

With the squad in combat gear they quickly picked up their rifles, Takeru opting for the LMG version and everyone else picking up carbines except Maya who as the squads designated sniper hefted the M82 which didn't look as ridiculous with her than Tama.

Heading for the truck the squad were looking at Takeru for advice and inspiration.

"Ok squad, standard formation, Hayate-kun up front and centre, Rei-chan left flank, Chiaki right flank, Maya you will be in the rear with the sniper rifle, I will be in the rear with the support gun guarding the squad from those that get past, Maya your priority is the big red fuckers, you will know them when you see them." Takeru put the formation in place.

He could feel his heart pounding as this would be his first ground combat against the BETA, the last time he faced one on the ground Marimo had been eaten, he wouldn't allow that to happen in front of him again.

**Final defence line – South of Mt Hakkai - 0810 hours**

The ride up had slowly sapped the moral from the group except Takeru whom knew how this went, though him passing out during the event in earlier loops causing a grim line to appear on his face, the steely look in his eyes made everyone think he too was nervous about them losing.

Shinji had been giving them a play by play of the situation on the hours ride up, the second line breaking down a little after 0710 hours had driven into the group that they now were going to be fighting the alien menace, a folder with pictures of the strains and information that may help them combat the creatures was handed around, Maya had spoken up about the humanoid appearance.

The position the group had been assigned to was one of the right flanks, several armoured vehicles including 6 T-90 MBTs and 6 Bradley IFVs that the IJA had bought off the Americans, an artillery battery had been placed in command of the area, other than the vehicles 4 full squads of combat troops including a heavy rocket squad and a pair of Cadet squad not including their own.

Estimations showed a few hundred BETA heading for their position though nothing was currently known about the composition of the group. The squad arrived at the forward command post for their area of operations awaiting orders where Shinji was to stay, after being sent to the defence line the group got in position awaiting the enemy.

"You know, some of those creatures do look like humans, you thing they really are from space and not some experiment?" Maya continued from her earlier track.

"What you mean the hairy testicle one and the giant pussy one?" Rei replied causing some wincing from the men and women around the squad.

"Very subtle Rei-chan, a case of vagina dentata that comes looking for you." Takeru shook his head feeling slightly ill at the thought. "Still I don't think they are human made, we have footage from Mars, and it looked like the Tank class."

Takeru of course knew they were from outer space though couldn't use his foreknowledge to explain this, looking at the slightly hilly terrain he could feel a tug of fear at the idea of facing the creatures on foot.

'Keep frosty kid, you're not some rookie of this war.'

The alarm siren blared out warning the defenders that the enemy were fastly approaching the area, a grim mood descended on them all as they prepared to face the charging enemy.

"All personnel to combat stations, BETA sighting in the area." Came a voice over the erected tannoy system.

"This is it then?" A soldier muttered near Takeru.

Walking out in front of the soldiers Takeru turned to look at his squad, tracing a line in the dirt.

"Ok people, behind yourselves is a clear run at our cities and the civilians we swore to protect, we can't, no, we won't let the BETA pass, this line they will not cross, this is our country, this is our world and I will be damned if it will fall today."

"Look around you, we are all that holds this flank, our comrades hold the other areas rely on us to keep this area in human hands, and in human hands it will remain, remember what you fight for, but more importantly fight for your comrades beside you too."

"This is not the time to show the BETA what we are made from, this is the day we show the BETA what they are fucking made from."

A cheer rose up and a few laughs at the final part of the speech from a few veterans, the moral pumped up again as the first BETA to reach visual range appeared.

"You know what we're facing?" Hayate asked Takeru.

Pulling up the binoculars he was given he looked over the charging enemy force, scanning the numbers as he went.

"1 fort, 4 grapplers, 3 destroyers though one has a few holes, and 1,2,3, companies so 200 or so smaller strains mostly tank class, looks good to me." Takeru turned to his squad again. "Ok squad get in defensive positions, call your targets and work together, I am not learning a new squads mates name."

Takeru heard the commander of the lead tank call out instructions for the other crews, the first volley fired in sync all targeting a single destroyer class before the volleys began to stagger due to better loading crews, Takeru watched as AP rounds slammed into the fast moving creature.

The continuous volleys finally managed to bring down the first destroyer but almost 36 rounds were used. The gap between the vanguard and the other BETA had widened giving the defenders some breathing room if they could finish these ones off quickly.

'Damn it, they need to flank the bastards but breaking formation at this time is no good.' Thought Takeru.

Downing the first destroyer brought cheers and caused the second to shift a bit around the dead creature, the armoured foe charging towards the cluster of MBT's causing the crew of one to abandon it in fear. A squad with a missile launcher fired at the flank of the destroyer blowing one of its rear legs off and causing it to slid along the ground.

"Son of a bitch." Takeru yelled running towards the empty vehicle he jumped in the driver's seat and started the thing back up ignoring the shouts from his own squad. The defence line began breaking down as the MBT's began reversing, Takeru put his foot down powering his tank forward instead, before shifting the turret to face slightly right.

Bearing down on one of the destroyers he managed to intercept the creature by ramming into its soft flank the 60 ton tank hitting the monster and toppling the thing thanks to the missing leg adding more leverage. Reversing the tank slightly and shifting into the gunner's seat he quickly aimed the cannon at the soft exposed head of the BETA as it tried to re-right itself blood pouring from the stump of a leg and fired killing it before quickly reloading and returning to the driver's seat.

The tanks front was slightly damaged by the move but not enough to prevent the tank from continuing combat. Turning the tank towards the defenders he noticed one of the tanks burning as a destroyer slammed itself into it, a second tank driving towards the destroyer copying his move Takeru shifted again quickly and fired at the rear leg causing the creature to lift slightly from the uneven footing as the second tank rammed it before another fired into its head, taking down the last destroyer.

"This is east line sector 6 command, who's in Rhino 5?" A stern voice came over the comms.

"Cadet Shirogane, 89th Training squad out of Saitama training base, Tank was empty and useful sir. You want me out of it?"

"Negative boy, get your squad in there and fill it out, take these bastards down."

"Roger sir, Rhino 5 taking the field."

Takeru drove the tank up to the squad before popping the drivers hatch open.

"Get in we got command of this, bit tight in here though."

The squad jumped in Hayate taking the commander's hatch, Maya the gunners and Chiaki and Rei handling loading.

"Damn it Takeru-kun they're gonna prevent us from being Eishi now and be a fucking tank crew." Rei yelled at the driver.

"We got red spider ones." Yelled Hayate.

"Tank class? Maya use the coaxial, perforate them." Called Takeru as he drove parallel to the charging enemy force.

The turret turned before heavy machine gun fire raked the attacking enemy force, the IFV's heavy cannons tearing enemy units apart in support, jumping tank class being used as clay pigeon shooting practice.

"Fuck we got tanks on our tanks." Hayate yelled again. "I'm going to take them out."

Hayate opened the commanders hatch and swung the pintle mount aiming at the swarming tank class before firing short bursts at the red spiders, a tank opened fire on the creature using a canister round blasting the red creature clean off the vehicle in a gory display of entrails. The whole battlefield filled with machine gun fire in cross sections and towards the bulk of the force that was lagging behind.

The fort classes arrival sowed panic in the ranks and inside the tank too. The massive creature lumbering into the fray its large stinger waving lazily around as if deciding which human to target.

"Hayate-kun, get back inside." Rei had popped out of the gunners hatch and was firing from her carbine the small arms fire popping open a warrior class that had tried to attack him.

Takeru spun the tank around below the fort class narrowly missing one of its legs, but in time to see another tank speared by the acidic lance, the vehicle almost cut in half by the stinger and melting killing everyone inside the brief agonising screams piecing through the radios.

"Fuck, poor bastards." Takeru muttered, "Hayate, get on to command get every vehicle to target that fort with everything they have, get bazooka squads on the grapplers for now, we need this thing down now."

Hayate nodded before picking up the comms, "This is Morikawa of the 89th Training squad, we need all fire focused on taking down this fort, its killing us."

"Roger copy, artillery support is zeroed in, all armoured units target the fort, heavy teams take the grapplers." The comms replied.

"We're down to 10 AP and 13 HEAT rounds and 6 canister, machine gun ammo less than half." Chiaki called out.

"We need to make it count." Rei replied picking up a HE round preparing to load it when the tank fired again.

Takeru sped the tank past the fort class as fire from the remaining tanks, IFV's and the allocated artillery began pounding it, spinning the tank again he put it in reverse narrowly missing being speared by the lumbering BETA, another explosion nearby as a grappler tore open one of the IFV's before being hit by 3 missiles from the infantry units that blew a large chunk from its side.

"This is Cadet Morikawa to the IFV commanders, use your missiles on that fort what are you saving them for?"

The three remaining IFV's fired their TOW missiles at the large fort class, the continuous fire from the 155mm shells combined with the explosive missiles and AP rounds seemed to work as the large creature buckled forward trying to spear another tank but taking out a grappler due to the fall angle.

The vehicles began raining fire on the last grappler, but the fire was sporadic as ammo was low and another MBT fell to a swarm of tanks leaving them with only their vehicle and another, the IFV's down to 1 as the grappler swung at another tearing it apart before succumbing to the heavy fire from the desperate troops.

"Load a canister round Rei, Maya target angle negative 15 degrees, we're running parallel to the fuckers again." Takeru called out from the driving seat.

The tank began returning to the defenders spot, the round loaded as more of the smaller strains began closing in.

"Fire!"

The round leapt from the barrel at a low angle, the smaller projectiles bounced along the floor once before spreading out in a large fan wiping out over a dozen smaller soldier class.

"Wow, where'd you learn that." Maya asked.

"Later, fight now exposition another time."

Driving the vehicle back to the very holed defence line, with only a few rounds of each ammo left the squad resorting to bursts of machine gun fire, Takeru, Rei and Chiaki leaving the vehicle and defending its flank while Hayate and Maya used the tanks weapons, even with the heavy units down the smaller strains were causing immense damage to the defending units on foot but the defenders knew that all was lost if they failed here and fought harder.

The radio chirped again this time from the main line.

"This is Captain Aoi Shimura of the 7th Division our line is buckling where the hell are our reinforcements?" A shrill female voice called out over the comms.

"Hold the line Captain, your flanks are holding out and UN reinforcements from Atsugi base are on the way ETA 10 minutes." The defence line commander announced.

Takeru grimaced he knew the fight would go on for another hour or so, though he couldn't help but think with his luck this could be his shortest loop yet.

Seeing that the defenders only had 3 vehicles intact Takeru climbed up to the commander's hatch and grabbed the radio while Hayate covered him.

"This is squad leader Shirogane of the 89th Eishi training squad Rhino 5, we need to close our lines up get the vehicles together we will have an easier time with them in one place and someone get us some ammo, machine gun and canister shot."

"Roger Rhino 5, Rhino 2, Grizzly 1, move alongside Rhino 5 and hold the area, all squads defend our units, supply runners are being sent."

The two vehicles pulled up quickly firing short bursts to clear the area of smaller strains and give the remaining troops time to get in defensive positions. The BETA seeing the largest concentration of organics and synthetics in one area began to swarm them.

The sounds of heavy machine gun fire overshadowed the sounds of small arms from the ground troops, the area filling with shell casings adding to the slippage danger from the now blended dirt.

"I call out targets concentrate fire on that one." Takeru yelled to the squad and surrounding infantry. "40m, soldier class, fire."

The volley of rifle rounds hit the fast moving creature. Dropping it dead as blood leaked out of the many holes like a sieve.

"Takeru-kun seems to have experience is penetrating pussies." Rei laughed grimly causing a few others to chuckle trying to relieve the heavy tension in the air. "Reloading, last mag."

"True, but unlike my gun, I'M not a quick shot." Takeru replied grinning, calmly lining up and burst firing his last rounds from his LMG. "Reloading."

"Last mag too, we need more ammo." Chiaki called out nervously.

The BETA began to close in, the ammo suppliers being prevented from reaching the beleaguered defenders, one of the tanks being swarmed by the useless warrior class in their mission to reach the humans between the vehicles.

"Left tank warriors, fire. Front soldier, fire. Left tank, soldier, fire." Takeru barked out orders to the group and they burst fired, no one caring they were taking orders from a green enlisted.

Turning to a few rear soldiers whom were shaking he steadied a firm gaze on them. "You three, punch a hole through the rear we need ammo now." The three nodded before trying to push through, careful shots fired so not to waste ammo.

An anguished cry caused Takeru to turn around in time to see a warrior class plant its hand on a soldiers head, a pair of infantry fired their entire mags into the creature dropping it and saving the soldier from a grisly fate.

'Not dying here, not today.'

"Look out!" A soldier yelled. "Incoming Tank."

Takeru looked up seeing the red spider leap and land on the barrel of his acquired tank bending the barrel downwards and rendering it useless, the creature wasted no time in biting into the machine ripping the tread apart as it tried to make its way inside to kill Maya.

"Hayate-kun, fuck that thing up." Yelled Rei from beside Takeru.

The area was rapidly filling up with corpses of BETA and periodic humans, the defenders were holding out, the flank was barely holding now, The sound of firing pins dry firing showed most of the soldiers had run out of ammo.

"Die!" A soldier yelled pulling the pin of a grenade and charging around the vehicle, an explosion from the grenade resounded followed by the overpressure and a flying arm, a few soldiers looked grim at seeing this outcome.

"Don't fucking think it, we need everyone left or we will fall, throw the fucking grenades don't suicide them." Takeru yelled at the older infantry. "Use your handguns or knives then."

Grenades were tossed through the air causing a series of loud explosions and several flying limbs from the slightly overpowered explosives.

"Takeru-kun, look out." Yelled Chiaki as a warrior class landed behind him.

Turning around quickly and ducking under the trunk like arm he pulled his knife out and plunged it into the flank of the creature in a reverse grip, switching quickly he savagely ripped upwards spilling the insides of the monster over his boots before quickly stabbing it through the head to finish it off.

Maya and Hayate joined the soldiers on the ground, the tanks guns empty and useless, the two fresh full mag soldiers supporting the ammo less defenders who were now down to around 20 soldiers.

"Line the fuckers up and let Maya tear them apart I don't care how just do it." Takeru called out to the exhausted defenders as she hefted the large gun.

A second warrior landed amid the group before being plunged into by both Rei and Chiaki a third soldier driving in too assist, a call to swarm the BETA was heard coming from the man which filled the soldiers with ironic mirth and each one pulled out their knives and began charging the BETA in a manically resolute display of courage.

"Hayate, cover Maya, Maya targets of opportunity, protect us as we fight."

Maya and Hayate nodded as Takeru and the others charged to join the melee fray and soldiers slashed and plunged the carbon steel blades into the BETA with extreme prejudice.

"This is command to all units, the main BETA forces have been crushed, reinforcements are on their way, hold fast, we have broken through and can get to you, I say again reinforcements are en-route." The flank command announced over the radio.

The news brought elation from the remaining infantry who took to the BETA with renewed vigor, the sight of 4 soldiers diving on a tank class and hacking it apart was almost comical if not for the situation being still technically in the favour of the enemy, the sounds of yelling and battle cries echoing with the single bullet blasts from the IFV and Maya filling the air.

Takeru rushed another warrior class, ramming his knife into the front of the creature and pulling up again covering himself in BETA gore, the sound of thrusters overhead as a large shadow appeared, a Type-94 in IJA colours landed and began accurately firing 36mm rounds at the tank class, a second one appeared likewise targeting the creatures taking the pressure off the ground forces.

The squad moved together as TSFs began arriving to mop up, the ragged chuckles of gore covered soldiers, relieved at surviving the encounter.

"Fucking Eishi, we do all the work and they get the glory." Takeru laughed heartily and he slumped down on the floor before pulling himself back up. A few ammo crates arriving from supply runners.

"Better never than late. Oh wait wrong way round." Rei spoke sarcastically.

"Grab some ammo and grenades people, make sure the area is clear, we don't rest until then." Takeru grabbed a few mags of rifle ammo, a few mutters coming from the other soldiers before they complied and moved out to finish off straggling BETA or confirm they were dead.

A few hours passed before fresh forces arrived to take up the reigns, a pair of T-90F flame tanks arrived to begin disposing of the corpses of the BETA and deal with the fort and destroyer classes after the human dead were removed from the area, the survivors were all herded into a large medical transporter with a few biosuited medics for quarantine reasons, the last thing the disposal units heard one of the gore covered defenders say before the door was closed was if anyone was hungry followed by laughing.

* * *

**Saitama Training base – 15****th**** November**

It had been only a single day since the squad had been brought back to the base, Takeru was now resting up on his bunk replaying the battle in his head, it was a different type of fight to being an Eishi though he still felt disgusted with the Eishi that fought in the second line, they fell with barely a fight forcing the ground units to pick up the slack, Takeru idly rubbing an area of his stomach a red welt from the decontamination he had endured.

The squad had been brought to a medical facility along with the others who had fought on foot, the soldiers had been stripped of their clothing which had been burned in an incinerator and given paper based patient robes and filed into a room with basic mattressless beds reminding Takeru of his time in the cells back in Yokohama.

Each 'prisoner' had been taken into a room full of NBC clothed personnel armed with bassine brushes and scrubbed until they were red while fire sprinkler type devices coated them in some kind of watery substance, after this each one had blood and other fluid samples taken before being ushered back into the temporary barracks to await the results.

When the all clear had been given each soldier had been taken away for an evaluation of their faculties by the bases psychiatrists, and then either released with a clean bill of health or sent for hypnosis and medication, none of the soldiers had been discharged from the army but each one had been given a commendation medal for their services.

The squads arrival back at base had come with near thunderous applause from the personnel there, the squad had held their heads high at this and it only reinforced Takeru's notion that he had made the right choice in staying in this world where he could make a difference.

"Say Takeru-kun, join me for a shower." Rei called out from the bed below.

"Uh, why, I'm clean for now." Takeru replied leaning over the bed and looking at the restless girl rubbing her breast.

"I need to fuck." Rei replied. "I don't think doing it myself will help me this time."

Takeru nodded as he swung himself down from the bed, he knew she was still feeling the effects from the battle, nearly dying in battle usually triggered a primal desire to reproduce and pass on your genes to the next generation, since none of the soldiers could really do anything while in quarantine.

Feeling the effects as well Takeru decided that dealing with the issue to help Rei was better than leaving her hanging, if he did she would probably jump him anyway, pulling off his clothes and walking into the currently empty shower room he placed a sock on the door handle before closing it behind himself.

**24****th**** November**

There were no rumours going around about Takeru and Rei's liaison in the shower, this was partly due to several others walking into the barracks mid way through the act, the walls weren't exactly soundproofed and the sock had all but confirmed the situation, still no one said anything, partly because they didn't really care and partly because word of Takeru's exploits in the Niigata defence had gotten around and few would fuck with him for it.

That didn't mean that he wasn't getting envious stares from several members of the other squads in the barracks, but when they did he pointedly ignored the issue, once again Takeru using his free time to catch up on some reading on important TSF squads around the world, the book itself didn't give much in the way of details but was a good start for fixing some of the holes in his education.

"Say Takeru-kun, you got a pack of cards?" Chiaki asked from lying on her bunk.

"Sure, in my foot locker."

He heard Chiaki get up and over to his kit, she most likely wanted to play solitaire or get them in a game of poker, though if Rei joined in a possible game of strip poker was literally on the cards.

"Wow Takeru-kun I didn't know you smoked." Chiaki looked up holding a pack of cigarettes.

Rei looked over from her position to see several dozen packs of Hope and Mild seven brand in his foot locker letting out a low whistle.

"Wow Takeru-kun, that's a lot of post sex smokes."

"Get off Rei-chan, I heard from one of the others that our future C.C.S.E would most likely be on an island in the pacific, the tobacco is for washing my clothes in so I can avoid snakes and such, better to buy them now and build them up than rush near the end and use up my training allowance."

"Really, we might need them for that?" Chiaki looked up getting a nod from Takeru.

"But if any of you do smoke just let me know and I can spot you some." Takeru went back to reading as Chiaki went to her bed to play cards.

The door to the barracks opened a few minutes later and in rushed Hayate and Maya taking up their positions beside their respective beds, a few moments later Shinji walked in with another person in tow.

"Squad 89, fall in." Shinji barked marching up to the group that were now scrambling to the ends of the bed, the squad saluted firmly. "We got another new recruit for you, say hello to Sakaki Chizuru, she washed out of the UN, so were going to give her a shot."

Takeru's eyes widened as he covertly looked over the meganekko, she looked frailer than usual like the fire had been snuffed out of her and was shrinking inwardly, the comments from the Captain seeming to do nothing for her self esteem.

"I'll leave her in your hands to get her set in, tomorrow we will evaluate her performance to see where we stand." Shinji announced before turning and leaving.

"Shirogane Takeru, squad leader of the 89th training squad, welcome Sakaki." Takeru proffered her hand which she took hesitantly.

The rest of the squad did their introductions before showing Sakaki to her bunk, the girl seemed unsure about the more public sleeping arrangements due to the special privileges she was used too.

"You're Sakaki Korechika's daughter ain't you?" Takeru asked knowing the answer but wanting to get her talking. The girl looked a little shocked before nodding hesitantly. "Well know that won't protect you from me or the Captain."

"Little would protect anyone from you Takeru-kun." Chiaki interjected.

"True, so Sakaki what was your last squad like and were you in a position of authority?" Takeru continued to try to get the girl to speak.

"I, I was squad leader, but my squad." Sakaki trailed off.

"Hmm, well you ain't getting my position, I earned it." Takeru folded his arms and nodded getting confirmations off the others.

"True, I would have handed you the position after Niigata with your actions that day, I get the feeling you would have done the same thing whether you were squad leader or not." Hayate shook his head.

"Niigata?" Sakaki looked confused by the comment.

"Fuck yeah, we were put on the final defence line during the invasion, Takeru practically lead the flanks defence from the front, we barely held but we halted the BETA." Rei agreed enthusiastically.

"So how did you wash out?" Takeru asked bring the conversation back to her.

He had a fair idea about the situation, they had most likely failed the C.C.S.E, he sighed a little he had totally forgotten about that little bit of information, hell he had called them all out on it at one point, Sakaki and Ayamine both blamed each other for the first failure and neither was willing to accept their own part in the problem, so neither was going to fix their problems.

Meiya kept out of the situation as a whole, it was one of the things he was always angry with her about, she didn't want to get too close to the others because of her heritage and didn't really understand the undercurrent of the problems the pair were dealing with, still she was second in command yet barely acted in a way to take the reigns when the situation needed someone else to step up.

Tama herself didn't like to confront others and coupled with her near crippling self esteem issues tried not to stand out in the group unless pushed, the best she ever did would be to beg the girls not to fight and flush crimson and get teary eyed.

And Mikoto, well she largely didn't do anything wrong in the first exam, it was because they hadn't listened to her that resulted in the failure amongst other elements, however he ability to sprout nonsense usually resulting in people not being sure if she was serious or not, though he did know she could be surprisingly lucid when it counted.

In all the whole squad were a problem of the highest order, his first loop he had won the squad over early on with his clumsy charm and they had all worked harder to help him pass, it had helped that he tried his best to help them too, in his later loops he had risen the bar and forced them to compete with him as well as calling them out on their issues making them look at the situation.

"We, failed our second C.C.S.E, the stress of it being our last chance causing most of the burden to fall on Cadet Yoroi Mikoto our survival expert, but well, in the end." Sakaki trailed off again.

"Start from the beginning of the C.C.S.E and how Yoroi was important." Takeru urged.

Sakaki sighed before nodding.

**Island - 17****th**** November**

The squad arrived at the rendezvous point, standing there like the blazing sun wasn't bothering her was Instructor Jinguuji in her blue training uniform and lounging in a purple string bikini was the commander of the special squad Professor Kouzuki, the five girls lined up as the instructor handed the map to Sakaki and informed them of the scenario.

"Ok Yoroi, can you handle objective C on your own, we don't have time to take them out one at a time."

"Hai, leave it to me." The small blue haired girl enthusiastically replied.

"I'll go with Mitsurugi and Tamase will go with Ayamine." Sakaki shot the raven haired rival a challenging look.

"Just don't screw up." Ayamine replied.

**Next day – Morning - Mikoto**

Arriving at the overlook Mikoto saw her objective, a sheen of sweat coating her brow causing her hair to stick to her forehead and staining her vest, it had taken her a long time to reach this point, she secretly wished she had a second person to help watch for traps as the fatigue of trekking solo was slowly weighing in on her, the thick brush, high humidity and temperature sapping her strength.

A rubber bullet trap had managed to catch her unaware and she now had a coin sized bruise on her stomach for the trouble. Making her way down to the base she began exploring the cave, a solo Humvee sat in the makeshift base a quick check confirmed her suspicion that it was missing its engine, finding only a large sheet that covered the vehicle she moved that to the entrance of the base before she began to lug the four 100kg barrels to a suitable point before rigging up a makeshift charge, a rudimentary fuse using a timer and the electricity to set the spark off was a good plan, setting the internal timer for 20 minutes before leaving.

Grabbing the sheet Mikoto began the trek up the cliff towards the rendezvous point, she was used to the feelings of sweat covered clothing on her skin due to her father taking her places when she was younger so her now completely drenched vest clung to her like a second skin wasn't bothering her too much.

With the large sheet in her arms she moved slowly up the path the loud explosion rocked the area causing her to look at her handiwork missing the trip wire that sprung another rubber bullet trap, the round hit her in the back causing her to drop the sheet down the cliff, Mikoto could feel another bruise near her shoulder blade and with everything that had happened she could ill afford to recover the sheet.

Turning around to head for the meeting point she came face to face with a snake hanging from the tree growing out of the rock face, the snake hissed menacingly lashing out at her from the sounds she had made the fangs plunging into her shoulder causing her to stumble and twist her ankle.

Mikoto watched the snake slither away, the tobacco smell causing it to leave, she managed to notice it wasn't a poisonous one so counted herself lucky on that but her injuries were piling up despite her skills in survival, she tentatively reached for the radio, she knew she would be a burden now but stopped herself from calling for rescue the others were counting on her.

Limping over to the tree she managed to pull a broken branch from it using it as a make shift crutch before wrapping a few leaves around her shoulder using some peeled vines to stem the bleeding, with herself set again she made her way to the squad.

**Ravine – 2 days later – 207**

With the team back together the squad had reached a ravine, the rain the day before had sapped a lot of energy from the squad, the group were running low on food and water and they had foraged eating snake and frog, the energy levels of Mikoto however were almost no existent, but she pressed on for the group acting as the squads point man as the traps were getting more complicated.

"Can't go round this, the lake up the river makes it impossible with our time limit, we need to cross it, Ayamine." Sakaki called out.

The raven haired girl grabbed part of the recovered rope and began her descent to the river at the bottom of the man-made ravine before scaling the other side with cat like agility, the heavens opened up during her climb causing minor problems but after a few setbacks Ayamine managed to secure the rope to a tree on the far side of the ravine.

The squad crossed the terrain as the heavy downfall quickly filled up the narrow valley with fast flowing brown water.

"We can't recover the rope like this." Mikoto spoke up.

"We should wait for the rain to stop." Tama put an option across.

"We cannot, the rain will rob us of our energy staying here."

"Sorry, if I kept the sheet we would have that option." Mikoto replied downcast.

"We need the rope, there could be more crevasse further ahead, Tamase can you shoot the knot with the rifle?" Sakaki asked the small sniper.

"That would cost us the rifle, I think we should keep it." Meiya put her opinion to the issue. "We may encounter objects that need its fire power, we can use vines for rope."

The discussion went on with Mikoto siding with Sakaki and Tama with Meiya, Ayamine sided with Meiya on principal of opposing Sakaki which angered her, despite the 3-2 against Sakaki ignored Ayamine's opinion due to spite and ordered Tamase to shoot the rope, the glares Ayamine was aiming at her back were as dangerous as any bullet.

With the rope recovered the group moved on, the sludgy ground taking its toll on the squad as they slipped and tripped towards the discovered meeting point, it had taken several hours to reach the location and the squall had stopped by then, the concrete helipad sitting innocently on the north west cliff.

"I found some flares." Ayamine held up the two hand held signal makers. "We didn't need the rope after all."

Sakaki glared at the girl as she walked boldly out to alert the recovery craft they were done, Sakaki turned away in a huff as Mikoto slid down the rock glad to be off her feet.

"Sakaki." Meiya whispered.

"Can it Mitsurugi, I don't care that you suggested the rifle, but you could have told Ayamine to make a proper choice instead of just one to piss me off." Sakaki spat back.

The look on Meiya's face contorted between shock, anger and acceptance, the rarity of her outbursts against anyone other than Ayamine made those times it did happen quite jarring, Tama had tried to smooth the situation over.

The sound of the helicopters rotors resounded in the area, Ayamine looked back at the squad with Sakaki arguing with Mitsurugi a second mechanical sound began under the first one looking at the helicopter expecting a harness winch the sound of heavy gunfire was the last thing she heard.

**Barracks - 24****th**** November**

"The, the first salvo tore her apart, the helicopter fled and we were given a new extraction, but everyone was shaken up and exhausted, I, I called off the test."

Takeru was shocked and saddened by the events, he had briefly forgotten just how bad the rivalry between the two was, a desire to grab his gun and shoot himself came about but he suppressed it, he needed more information, he needed to learn, this was now a failed loop but that didn't mean it couldn't be a productive one.

"If she had listened to what I told her, she would have lived, but she never learned."

Takeru grabbed the girl by her vest pushing her again the wall, the shocked look from the others partly at Takeru's actions and partly at Sakaki's comment.

"So it's her fault? Sounds to me like the only person who can walk away from that test with little fault is that Mikoto girl, you're squad leader, if you have problems with your squad fix them, drag her outside and spar or talk to her, did you try that?"

Takeru let go of the girl brushing his hand through his hair in frustration.

"A squad needs to work together if they are to succeed in their objective, I know putting out options can work, but in some cases fast decisive decisions need to be made, if I give an order you follow it without question, if I want opinions I will ask for them, if we fuck up because of a decision I am to blame regardless of if it's my idea or another squad members, because I made the call."

Sakaki looked downcast, the squad really had acted like brats, it had only been the last few days before the test that the squad really got serious and only because of the invasion.

"Ok, Sakaki lets get you settled in, we are up at 0500 everyday for a morning run, we have mixed showers and both the morning and evening ones unless you're in the infirmary or with the Captain you join us all in there, we have a brief meeting before lights out to discuss any issues we have with either each other or anything we want to get off our chests, and Saturday evening is games night."

"So why did you join the UN Sakaki-san, if you're Prime Ministers daughter surely the IJA would have been the better option." Maya asked politely.

"I would rather not talk about personal matters." Sakaki replied softly.

"Really, why?" Takeru asked trying to lead her into another lecture.

"The 207, my squad, we, we were all connected to important people, we didn't want to press."

"Sounds like that was the source of the problem, I think opening up would have solved many of the issues, in fact if you were all connected like that sometimes you NEED someone to talk too, more so if the entire group is like it maybe common ground could have been found." Takeru replied earning a shocked look from the brunette.

"True, we hide little from each other here, like when Takeru-kun and Rei-chan had sex in the showers."

"Well we didn't exactly hide it though those walls are paper thin." Takeru shrugged. "So again, why did you join the UN Sakaki?"

"My father, he wanted me to join the IJA, but I didn't want to be under his thumb, I will make my own way, so I joined the UN forces instead to remove the power he had over me, but since we were removed from service my father put me in here, I had no choice." Sakaki's face contorted into a bitter smile.

"Sure you did, refuse to join and go your own way, I hated my father too, I would never listen to something he said." Rei replied looking angry.

"Squad leader Shirogane Takeru, please report to Captain Yukimura Shinji's office, I repeat Cadet Shirogane Takeru to report to Captain Yukimura Shinji's office."

"Guess that's me, carry on squad, I'll be back soon." Takeru turned and left to report in.

**Shinji's Office**

Takeru walked into the private office of his commanding officer, the man beckoned him to sit down, taking a seat he waited for the man to finish up a report.

"Well Shirogane, you now have a full squad, I guess we can get you into the evaluation now." Shinji opened the conversation with a bomb shell.

"Sir? The C.C.S.E, but we're not ready, I only got a month's worth of training, only Sakaki has full training."

"Don't give me bull shit Shirogane." Shinji countered calmly. "No one without military experience could have handled the situation like you did, and your base line aptitude was higher than any ace pilot we got."

"Sir I can assure you there are no records hidden or otherwise of any active service or TSF flight time by myself, I can assure you everything in my record from before Yokohama is true."

"You will fight me on this won't you Shirogane?"

"No sir, as I have not lied, still we have no choice on the C.C.S.E?"

"No we don't, you have until January 5th, with the losses sustained during the defence by both ground and Eishi we are rushing through Cadets to fill the holes, rumours are going around that they will be lowering the draft age to 14 soon too." Shinji sat back a sour look on his face.

"Might as well sir, the way things are we are all dead in a few years, might as well give the kids a fighting chance." Takeru replied levelly. "Still I will get the squad ready by then, I believe we will pass when the time comes."

"Very good, dismissed."

Takeru left the office after saluting the man, as the door closed Shinji smirked, the new squad leader was quite cunning, he had spent several days digging into the records for any mention of someone named Shirogane, even going through classified files and nothing, his wording on 'everything in my record from before Yokohama is true' stood out, clearly anything between his 'death' and enlistment was a lie.

But what did it mean? Was he a clone or an enemy agent that had undergone heavy surgery, it seemed unlikely, they wouldn't put them in a place where they could potentially get killed, no they would be administrative in this case.

**28****th**** November**

The squad had been informed of the accelerated training to get them ready for the evaluation, Sakaki had been surprised when they had woken her up at 0500 and dragged her off for a run, she was still getting used to showering with men around, she was unnervingly compliant with orders, the squad weren't sure if it was Takeru's force of will or her failure as squad leader or both.

The training today consisting of the rifle range, Sakaki showing he trigger happy tendencies before Takeru schooled her on ground based controlled volley fire and TSF based target acquisition fire.

"Ok, you weren't there, so sit this out while we show you how to do it."

The squad took up a staggered two row formation, Rei and Takeru in the back with the other three in front kneeling. They took aim at the targets on the range. Sakaki watching as Takeru called out with target to shoot and when too, the accurate heavy fire blowing the targets to shreds.

"Wow, but you're sacrificing overall personal accuracy for damage." Sakaki looked on in awe.

"True, but the enemy are large and take a few hits, this way you bring down an enemy quickly a few squads with ammo and this formation could hold an area for quite a while."

Takeru noticed Shinji writing notes regarding this concept before pocketing the note for later use, Sakaki was added to the group to get her used to the way of fighting on the ground, the explanation that even Eishi might need to fight on foot being heeded from experience. The second part of the training was with sniper rifles, Takeru acting as spotter for Maya before a realisation hit him, today was the HSST attack.

**Yokohama base**

Tamase Miki stood on the roof overlooking the destroyed town another sigh escaping her lips at the whole situation, she hated how she couldn't speak up when it was needed, if she had chosen the rope rather than the rifle for personal reasons maybe Kei-san would still be alive and they would be a squad, but the past couldn't be changed.

Heading down the stairs she headed out to the training field, the MP looking over the civilian garbed former Cadet with a visitors tag before allowing her out, her father had arrived at the base a few hours earlier, his disappointment evident, her letter to him before the exam had told him she was squad leader and she had insulted the group, the situation making it look like the failure was all on her and as if she was a back stabber, she felt wretched because of it, if only she had told them what she thought instead of bottling it in.

Heading over to the edge of the base she knelt down and looked at the flowers she had planted a few days ago, the St Paulia's she had cultivated in her room over the last year were now part of the base, but she wondered whether anyone would see them or if they would water them. A cool breeze swept through the area causing the flowers to sway a single petal coming loose and flying away in the current, Tamase watched as the violet petal vanished into the sky.

"Kei-san." She felt the tears come again as she remembered the last moments of her life, a surprised and fearful expression that morphed into pain and confusion as the large shell tore through her abdomen the organs falling out of the hole as she fell to the ground her eyes looking at the squad but devoid of life. Tamase allowed the tears to flow, Yoroi-san had held her back from rushing out there to possibly her own death.

The alarm of the base shaking her out of her memories, she stood up to rush off before remembering she was no longer a member of the army, her father had pulled some strings to allow her to remain on base for a few days as he was coming there anyway and would take her home, various soldiers rushed around, heading back to the building she found herself refused entry by the MP.

"Sorry miss, base is on lockdown, please head to the guest shelter level 2 via the front entrance." The man put his hand forward halting her.

Tamase nodded before jogging around the building, the main door guard allowing her in and along with a few other civilian contractors was put in a secure room. The sounds of nervous talking from the workers was drowned out by her thoughts again as Tamase sat in a corner waiting for the alert to end, it was most likely a drill to show her father and the others the base was ready for anything.

The alarms continued to blare for a few minutes before the sound of a heavy cannon firing a single shot was heard, the muttering from the others died down as a few moments later a second shot was heard, fear filled her as this was not a drill, the others in the room began banging on the door demanding to know what was going on, a few moments later a third shot.

"Papa."

**Saitama training base**

The explosion rocked the entire area, but with the amount of explosives in the transport it made sense, the alarms blared as the squad made their way to the briefing room, a few minutes passed before a slightly pale Shinji walked in, standing in front of the squad he cleared his throat.

"Information is coming in as we speak, but about an hour ago all contact was lost with an HSST, the craft was put on a collision course with Yokohama base, from what we know one of their Eishi attempted a long range sniper shot using an over the horizon cannon and satellite targeting data, the pilot failed and reports show that the entire surface of the base has been destroyed with several floors below ground too."

The sound of someone hitting the floor came after this causing everyone to turn and see Sakaki shaking on the ground on her knees, the sound of muttering like a mantra though the words didn't reach anyone clearly as Maya and Chiaki rushed to her aid.

"What's the mission sir?" Takeru asked trying to remain calm.

"We are sending units to help with a rescue operation, but." Shinji let it hang looking at the fallen Cadet.

"Not to sound blasé about it, but I think she needs to come with us, if she has friends on the base, knowing their fate is better than not, some closure from that can help." Takeru continued.

"I, I'll go, I won't lose." Sakaki stood up.

'You not losing is part of your problem Class Rep.' Takeru thought wryly.

"Very well, kits and supplies are being readied, head to the hanger and move out."

**Yokohama base ruins**

The truck pulled up to the base along with several others from bases around the area, fire engines already on site fighting off the burning materials, a large crater where the base once stood, the trees lining the ground had been either incinerated or blown down almost like they were pointing at the site.

Twisted metal and concrete rubble filled the area inside the hole and the air was thick with smoke, it was a vision of hell, the sound of rapid footsteps about to pass him caused Takeru to grab the girl before she disappeared into the haze.

"Wait, grab a mask first, unless you want to die." Takeru shot the girl a withering glare causing her to freeze. "And don't run off half cocked, the area is dangerous and one false step could prove fatal."

Removing the cold glare from his face he saw the girl nod meekly, Takeru could empathise with her, like himself the universe seemed to zero in and make life hell, looking around he could see a few MPs with a grey haired man near them, he appeared to have aged almost 20 years from what Takeru could remember of him from his last loop, as one of the personnel gave him the bad news.

"I'm sorry sir, one of the MPs directed her to the level 2 shelter."

"Ohhhhhhh, T-t-t-tama." The man choked out tears flowing unabashed as he was shepherded into a waiting vehicle to be taken to safety.

Takeru headed over to where Sakaki and the others were, his legs shaking as they threatened to give out under him, it was again beginning to feel like Kashgar with the losses piling up so quickly, it surprised him he was determined to stay the course.

"Ok squad, find one of those in charge and assist as able, Sakaki stay here I need a word."

Takeru gently informed Sakaki of the fate of Tama, the girl broke down cry as Takeru wrapped the sobbing brunette in a gentle embrace as he patted her back.

"Let it out Sakaki, don't hold it in."

The pair didn't look too out of place amongst the civilian members that were fortunate enough to be on the lower levels at the time that they wept for lost friends that had been on the surface.

"Why is this happening Shirogane-san?" Sakaki spoke into his chest.

"Life is not fair Sakaki, you either move on or you don't, I won't tell you to do either that's your choice."

A few minutes passed before Sakaki regained herself, grabbing a mask as Takeru donned his the pair set off to find their squad and help with the recovery efforts.

**30th November – Barracks**

Takeru leaned back on his bunk, the clean-up operation was still undergoing but the main part of putting out the fires and dealing with the injured and dead was mostly finished, there were few injured, anyone on the surface and the first 5 basements were killed instantly including Kyouzuka-oba-chan.

Takeru had helped make a small memorial for the fallen members of the 207 and their favourite cook, pieces of metal from Yokohama base had been used to make it, the evening they returned to their base the squad had gotten a meal made up of the favourite foods of the three deceased comrades of Sakaki, herself showing surprise that Takeru knew the tradition that was personal to Kyouzuka herself earning a sad smile from him.

He himself had spent some time at the memorial alone, it was hard coming back to save the girls and moving on without them alive, a part of him was telling him to give up and just fight to free himself from the loops and pain but he suppressed the notion, he would endure for now and learn more about the enemies he would face when he was ready to bring the might of humanity against both the BETA and the human race that wished to flee, they would win this round, he knew that but they wouldn't get their goal in the end and it was all that now mattered.

The first of the four would be Eishi squads had been sent off for their evaluation, from the rumours going around, the C.C.S.E was going to be on the same island that the UN 11th army used, but considering they were dismantling parts of the base and moving them to the Atsugi one it made sense, since they currently didn't have any Cadets there.

**15****th**** December**

The Mt Tengen issue had sadly not been dealt with by anyone, without Yuuko dealing with a trainee squad and wanting to give them some field experience and Takeru not pushing for IJA intervention that would bring about the coup, the eruption had happened, the news reports told of mid-level destruction of the area and the loss of an estimated 14 squatters.

**25****th**** December **

With the rush issues from the attack, most lessons were being finished early and the squad being considered quite fit with the extra morning runs had been given the day off, the concept of Christmas being known only to Takeru, Shinji and Maya, grabbing the 3 other squads that were now all on their Eishi piloting skills, they began decorating the room after getting permission from Shinji who overrode the other officers though how he managed that he wasn't telling.

The room now looked like some culture car wreck, Teru dolls, Ema plaques and paper made tinsel, Takeru inwardly laughed and cried at the same time seeing this but considering everyone had joined in for the festivities he wouldn't complain even if some people thought Tanabata was Christmas.

With the decorations up the small party got started, one of the Cadets bringing around the fortified orange juice popular with Eishi, Takeru paled as he was handed the offensive drink, a brief theory came into his head that the placeboic hypnosis he had undergone with Isumi's urging had in fact been to make him think this drink was like rancid yak piss, though considering Touko also loved the drink maybe she had done it to get them for herself.

Takeru decided the theory had merit and on a future loop would question the girls about this as long as he remembered this himself, he figured he would as Touko usually offered him a drink and looked slightly happy when he refused.

"Well Shirogane, a good party." Shinji stood next to him his blazer removed and tie untightened giving him a drunk salary man look. "Want a glass?"

Shinji offered him some sake from the bottle he was holding, nodding in acceptance he poured some of the semi-clear liquid into Takeru's waiting glass.

"A toast to humanity." Shinji raised his glass followed by Takeru. "To our ultimate survival."

Takeru raised his higher as he silent toasted the brilliant woman that was crying her eyes out in the basement of what was left of the Yokohama base, tipping back the potent alcohol he felt the light burn in the back of his throat, he was quite good at holding his liqueur and it hadn't taken long for the pair to empty the bottle.

"So what is it you wish to talk to me about Sir?" Takeru asked feeling slightly light headed by the drink but still cohesive.

"My people have learned that a project that was humankind's last hope has failed, we estimate than within the next 3 years humanity will be extinct, my superiors are looking to create a task force that will work against the UN and US to try to prevent the outcome, based on your current profile and considering your squad I will be putting you all forward assuming you pass the exam."

"Thank you for the vote of confidence sir." Takeru replied slightly sarcastically. "We will pass and I will gladly accept the chance."

"Good, any chance we can get to stop the outcome will be used but I will tell you more after the C.C.S.E."

As the party wound down squad 89 sat around the poker table in the corner of the rec lounge, a suggestion to play strip poker was shot down by all, Shinji had retired to his quarters citing work the next day, it was getting later for all but the semi festive mood was still strong.

"Ok people, I know no one else got presents since this was a last minute thing but I got everyone a little something." Takeru put his hands together grinning like a maniac. "Tada, Takeru coupons."

He handed each girl a small paper note with a chibified picture of his face and the words, get Takeru to do anything for a single day written on it, each one stating that only one person could claim per day to prevent doubling up, but short of murder and suicide anything went.

"I know what I'm using this for." Rei smirked.

"Now why the hell would I want one Takeru?" Hayate looked displease at getting the ticket.

"Really? You the one I most wanted to have one." Takeru replied in a faux sensual voice before laughing at the worried look on his face. "Just shitting you."

The merriment continued until lights out at which time the party had wound down to idle talk between members about the upcoming C.C.S.E, with it less that two weeks away Takeru felt the first nerves outside of a combat situation, he was going blind into an important event something everyone else did but he rarely had for a while now, as squad leader he would need to command the team well if they were to pass and get into this special group the Captain was making.

**5th**** January – Shinji's Office**

"So you want to take over as the commander of the squad?" Shinji asked the officer uniformed woman in his room.

"Yes, I believe I can teach these Cadets better, I have more experience at this." She replied firmly.

"True you file is impressive, but you're a Major why would a Major teach Cadets?"

"Why would an Intelligence Captain teach Cadets?" The woman shot back.

"Hmm, very well, I will turn over command to you...after the evaluation, you will be proctor for that and can teach them how to pilot the TSFs." Shinji smirked at the mixed emotions displayed on the young woman.

"I accept and thank you for this."

"No problem Major, but I must warn you, the squad leader is an odd one, though the entire group is really, he is one to watch."

With the agreement made Shinji quickly filled in the transfer papers he kept inside his filing cabinet the form was a template that he had made so only took a few minutes to fill in.

"Ok Major you are now in charge of a Cadet squad."

**Barracks**

The smell of tobacco filled the room as the squad each pulled their clothing out of the tobacco water filled footlocker, with the test date known Takeru had requested to put his clothing in Rei's locker while he filled his empty one with water and broken up cigarettes, when the water was sufficiently brown he had put one of his vests and trousers in the box, the others throwing theirs in too.

"Damn I hate this smell." Sakaki wrung out the vest putting it on her bare skin. "It will sink into my skin."

"True but less likely to get a snake bite if its in your skin too." Takeru replied putting a packet of mild sevens down the back of his trousers.

The squad finished getting dressed as Takeru emptied the water down the drain in the shower room before returning with the damp but empty locker, putting it down he looked over his apprehensive squad.

"Fall in 89." Takeru barked, the squad stood in a line. "Today we start our evaluation to see if we are able to become Eishi, I expect each member of my squad to pull their weight and give 110% we know little about what to expect, but what I can expect is for you all to do me proud, so fall out and get to the transport we got an exam to ace."

The squad nodded looking firm at the situation each one leaving as they made their way to the truck that would take them off to the waiting ship.

**A/N: Well that's the first chapter, I'll see if this one gets a better reception than the other version, made a reference to Yuuko's ending in Unlimited, had a small idea for that one most likely a chapter or two short story but that's only if people want to see it, either review and let me know or drop me a PM, added a page break since this chapter is long just after the Niigata battle to help remind people where they are, if well received most chapters will hit around this length most likely. Thank you for reading.**

**Until next time Ja ne.**


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